One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life Review

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(More customer reviews)I was inspired by this book immediately, right from its introduction titled "Living the dash." The authors use that phrase to refer to the dash between the birth and death dates on headstones. The dash represents a lifetime. What a person does during that dash, the authors point out, is completely in his or her hands.
The authors challenge you -- literally -- to make the most of it, to open your eyes and live each day with enthusiasm and meaning. The first page has a contract to sign called "The One-Month-To-Live Challenge" which states "I commit with God's strength to live the next thirty days as if they are my last so I can experience life to the full!" There is a spot for your signature and a spot for a friend to sign as a witness.
The rest of the book serves as a day-by-day manual for your monthlong conversion. There's a chapter for each day. Each one opens with two inspiring quotes (from people as varied as Helen Keller, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maya Angelou) and includes questions to help you examine your life from a particular perspective. At the end of each chapter are three ways to act on the topic, for example making a list of five things you'd change about your life if you only had a month to live, or going outside and looking at the stars.
Though "One Month to Live" is filled with Biblical verses and stories, its message, and approach, can easily work for those of any faith. Living life to the fullest: What a terrific goal! As George Eliot wrote, in a quote from chapter 8: "It is never too late to be what you might have been."
Here is the book's table of contents:
Day 1: Introduction -- Living the dash
Principle 1: Live Passionately
Day 2: Roller Coaster -- Riding the Big Dipper
Day 3: Time Squared -- Spending your most valuable resource
Day 4: Power Surge -- Connecting with the ultimate source
Day 5: Oxygen Mask -- Breathing first
Day 6: Monkey Bars -- Risking greatness
Day 7: Dreamsicle -- Thawing out your frozen dreams
Day 8: Kick Start -- Living life full throttle
Principle 2: Love Completely
Day 9: Heart of the Matter -- Relating and not waiting
Day 10: Ocean -- Exploring the depths of forgiveness
Day 11: Everest -- Scaling the obstacles to unity
Day 12: Boxing Ring -- Resolving conflicts by fighting fair
Day 13: Sandpaper -- Smoothing the edges
Day 14: The Gift -- Thanking those around you
Day 15: Last Call -- Revealing your heart
Principle 3: Learn Humbly
Day 16: Star Power -- Discovering who you were meant to be
Day 17: GPS -- Finding your direction
Day 18: Hurricane -- Withstanding the winds of change
Day 19: Metamorphosis -- Changing from the inside out
Day 20: Earthquake -- Building a foundation that lasts
Day 21: Mulligan -- Playing with integrity
Day 22: Road Signs -- Experiencing a personal miracle
Principle 4: Leave Boldly
Day 23: Sandcastles -- Creating a lasting legacy
Day 24: Seeds -- Planting for the future
Day 25: Sticks and Stones -- Using eternal building materials
Day 26: Collisions -- Staying the course when your life crashes
Day 27: Starfish -- Making a world of difference
Day 28: Footprint -- Leaving a lasting impression
Day 29: Game Over -- Dying to live
Day 30: Game On -- Living it up

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The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life Review

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(More customer reviews)'. . . The objective of this book is to provide . . . the means to lift off from . . . struggle and sail into a vast universe of possibility.'
Benjamin Zander is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic and is well known for his orchestra's passionate performances. Rosamund Stone Zander is an executive coach, family therapist, and private practitioner who brings enormous psychological perspective to enhancing human behavior. They have written a fascinating book in which they alternate as voices in sharing principles and examples in the form of compelling stories.
They have striven to make what they share ' . . . simple, not easy.' The idea is to help you create in yourself and in others 'transformational' improvements.
They share a series of perspectives designed to improve your understanding of what and where the potential is.
First, humans tend to focus on very few things, missing most of what is going on around them. By shifting focus, you will see many opportunities for the first time. Much of this book is designed to do that for you. You will visit our old friend the nine dot square and be reminded that connecting all of the dots in four lines without lifting your writing instrument from the paper requires you to go outside the box that we mentally draw at the circumference of the dots. Be careful about your assumptions! They can fence you in!
Second, measurements can cause us to focus too narrowly on where we are today and encourage scarcity thinking -- the glass is half empty. The Zanders encourage thinking about the glass as half full, citing the well-known perspective of optimism as being empowering. This can help you 'step into a university of possibility.' I like to call this pursuing the ideal practice.
Third, if you assume that people will do well and help them see how they can, they will. Mr. Zander gives every student an A in his class, and simply requests that the student write a paper to tell what they will do to deserve the A. This gets the students focused on excellence, and takes away the tension that harms accomplishment.
Fourth, as a mindset, think of your role as 'being a contributor.' 'You are a gift to others.' How could that change what you do? As someone who thinks that way now, I find it a very useful perspective, and was glad to see it in the book.
Fifth, lead from any chair. This is a reference to involving everyone. Mr. Zander asks his players to write down how he could improve practices and peformances, and pays attention to the suggestions.
Sixth, follow rule number six. That rule is to 'lighten up.'
Seventh, be present to the ways things are. Many of us are disconnected from reality. By re-touching it, we can see more possiblities.
Eighth, give way to passion. Going with your strong feelings allows you to be more authentic, and to go to new heights of accomplishment.
Ninth, light a spark. See you role as creating a spark of possibility to be lit that others can see.
Tenth, be the board of the game you are playing. This makes it easier to see how you can make a difference.
Eleventh, create a vision that generates 'frameworks of possibility' for others. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous 'I Have a Dream' speech is cited.
Twelfth, tell the WE story. Focus on being inclusive and considering what is best for all. Move from I to We, as the Coda to the book encourages.
Each section has exercises you can use to deepen your understanding of the principles and to help you practice, in order to create greater skill.
The principles are similar to those in many other books about improving performance and creativity. What is different about the book are the unique ways that the principles are expressed, the exciting examples in beautiful stories from music and business that will be new to you (as they were to me), and the passion with which the Zanders write. I would love to hear them do this book on an audio cassette! Both do public speaking, so you may get a chance to hear them.
Can we ever get too many great inspirational stories and reminders to live up to our potential rather than our pasts? I don't think so. This book will reignite your passion for making a larger and more positive difference. It will make you more human as you do so.
After you have finished the book, consider where your passion, gifts, and influence can combine to all you to most effectively live these principles. Consider that as a calling for at least some of your leisure time. If you are lucky, you can find some way to make that a primary calling for your working hours, as well. But find that place, and spend as much time as you can there!


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National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the most exciting books that National Geographic has published in recent times. One stunning image after another it lives up to its representation by showing the best photos found in the National Geographic archives. There is little text in this book and it relies heavily on the quality of the images selected. The sample photos and the video only give you a taste of what is between the covers. I must admit that I am biased, because one of my photos is in the book. It was an honor to have one of the only photos I ever sent to National Geographic to be selected by Annie Griffiths to be included in the book.
As a photographer, I will be learning from this book for years to come. What makes beauty in a photograph is a question this book answers. It may seem like a small trivial question to some, but Annie gives an elegant answer with some of the most beautiful photos that represent the best of our world. This book helps reaffirm to me that photography can be a medium of how to view this world and live our lives in the simple pursuit of beauty. What greater purpose could a photographer or a person have?
It is no wonder to me that the popularity of this book is rising, and I applaud Annie Griffiths for the theme of beauty that opens before your eyes with each turn of the page.
When I sit for awhile with this book a quote from George Eliot comes to mind:
"The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone." I treasure the moments that each photographer has brought to my eyes.

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National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs takes readers on a spectacular visual journey through some of the most stunning photographs to be found in National Geographic's famed Image Collection. Award-winning photographer Annie Griffiths culled the images to reflect the many variations on the universal theme of beauty. Chapters are organized around the aesthetic concepts that create beauty in a photograph: Light, Composition, Moment (Gesture and Emotion), Motion, Palette, and Wonder.

Beyond the introduction and brief essays about each featured concept, the text is light. The photographs speak for themselves, enhanced by lyrical quotes from scholars and poets. In the chapter on Light, for example, we read these words of whimsical wisdom from songwriter Leonard Cohen: "Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the lights get in." And then the images flow, of light entering scenes via windows, clouds, and spotlights, from above, alongside, and behind, casting radiance upon young ballerinas and weathered men, into groves of autumn trees and island-dotted seas, revealing everything it touches to be beautiful beyond expectation.

To illuminate the theme of Wonder, Griffiths chose a wish from Andre Bazin: "If I had influence with the good fairy...I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." This thought is juxtaposed with an exquisite vision in white, a frame filled with the snowy-pure dots and rays of a bird's fan tail. And on it goes, picture after tantalizing picture, alive with wondrous beauty.

When she created National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs, Annie Griffiths set two goals: to maximize visual delight, and to create a book unique in the world of publishing--one in which many of the photographs could be purchased as prints. She has succeeded on both counts. Many of these stunning images are available for order, and there can be no doubt as to the visual delight. You must open this book for yourself, and take in its radiant beauty.

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Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is about hope and new beginnings from an individual affected by the bad choices of those close to her. This book does not glorify the crimes committed by the guilty parties, but instead honors the courage and survival of an innocent victim. The author describes both the internal and external hardships, adversities, and trials associated with her life circumstances. I felt her pain, despair, and eventually her triumph over those circumstances. This book gives hope to anyone that struggles with their own self-worth, that has been a victim of crime, and / or needs courage to survive what life has dealt them. The authors did such a great job putting this story to words that I feel like I know Melissa personally. She is an uplifting, spiritual person and I thank her for her willingness to share her story with others.

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I Care About Your Happiness: Quotations from the Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell Review

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(More customer reviews)the best book i have ever read. tells so much about love and feelings of lovers...

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5: Where Will You Be Five Years from Today? Review

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(More customer reviews)Each year I share with my clients and friends a book that I believe will provoke their thinking in some way.
Shortly after Thanksgiving last year I found myself in a Starbucks Café with a steaming Americano on my table and seated next to a display of dark chocolate and merchandise. I had a 30-minute wait till my appointment arrived, so I began to page through the book titled, "5." It's a tool for planning your life five years out, filled with thought-provoking activities. Yet even when I ignored the exercises, I decided, it's a good, fun read!
I found the layout stimulating, the questions quite provocative, and the value high. So high, in fact, that I talked a Starbucks manager into ordering me a full case of these (50) for exclusive distribution to my client base.
They loved the book! I received dozens of notes from clients who dug into the exercises and were having a wonderful time discovering their future. A few confessed they had no energy to plan the future, but when they started reading the book they felt so inspired by the layout and the powerful questions that they found themselves engaged despite them selves.
I also had a lot of requests re: Where can I get a copy? Until very recently (end of month Jan 09) the book was not available except thru Starbucks, and they were sold out. I'm thrilled it's now available thru AZN.
My wife and I used two copies of this book to do our annual Planning Retreat, where we set aside an entire day to review the past year and then look ahead to the next. This book, 5, challenged us to look even further ahead.
It's not a breakthrough book, and it's filled with a lot of quotes and readings that self-improvement junkies will have already seen before. But the presentation is so much fun; and the arrangement of activities keeps one moving thru the planning/vision process.
Bottom line, it's a pretty joyful planning tool. I highly recommend this for those who get stuck in planning their life, and especially those who appreciate visual presentation.

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